An Empirical Study on the Impact of LMX Congruence Between Formal and Informal Leaders on the Formal Leader’s Ambidextrous Innovation

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-462-4_51How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Leader-Member Exchange; Leader Ambidextrous Innovation; Empirical Study

Abstract

In the BANI era, the role of informal leadership has become increasingly significant in team management. Effectively managing the emergence of informal leaders and fostering coordinated interactions with them poses a critical challenge for formal leaders. Grounded in Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) theory, this study investigates the impact of LMX congruence between formal and informal leaders on formal leader’s ambidextrous innovation. Drawing on survey data collected from 154 formal leaders and 511 corresponding employees in China, the result indicates that higher LMX congruence between formal and informal leaders significantly predicts greater the formal leader’s ambidextrous innovation. Theoretically, this study uncovers a novel mechanism through which LMX congruence between formal and informal leaders influences formal leader’s ambidextrous innovation, offering a new conceptual lens for future research. Practically, it provides valuable implications for how formal leaders can improve communication and collaboration with key team members to foster innovation in increasingly decentralized organizational settings.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Download article (PDF)

TY  - CONF
AU  - Yingxin Huang
AU  - Hongjiang Lv
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/09/12
TI  - An Empirical Study on the Impact of LMX Congruence Between Formal and Informal Leaders on the Formal Leader’s Ambidextrous Innovation
BT  - Proceedings of the 2025 9th International Seminar on Education, Management and Social Sciences (ISEMSS 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 474
EP  - 480
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-462-4_51
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-462-4_51
ID  - Huang2025
ER  -